The present proposed study is the first phase of a research program designed to evaluate the impact of a media-presented dental fear and avoidance reduction program. It represents an important current trend in behavioral medicine/dentistry of employing behavioral principles in educating the public and increasing health via the mass media. The major goal of the present study is to demonstrate the therapeutic impact of a one-hour videotaped fear and avoidance reduction program which will be used in a future larger-scale, community-wide study. Sixty high-fear dental avoiders and 60 moderate fear dental avoiders will be evaluated. One-third of each fear-level group will be assigned to a videotaped treatment condition, one-third to a videotaped placebo condition, and one-third to a videotaped no treatment condition. Pre- and post-viewing evaluations (before, immediately after, 6 months after, and one year after) of dental fear, avoidance, and attitudes/reactions to dentistry will be collected for all subjects. It is hypothesized that the videotaped treatment condition subjects will evidence a significant reduction in dental fear and avoidance relative to the other two conditions. Such findings will provide the important groundwork for subsequently validating the educational/therapeutic impact of applying behavioral technology to large populations via the mass media.